Delay in software launch frustrates city

Kevin Smith, as assistant planning director for the city of Sioux Falls in April 2012, recommended a company that would develop software to create easier access online of property in the city. “This is an investment in doing our job better,” he said at the time. But the working relationship with the company has not been smooth and the system is not in place yet almost one year after it first was expected to be launched.
(Photo:
Argus Leader file photo
)

More than two years ago, Sioux Falls officials persuaded the City Council to spend more than $1.2 million on a new software system.

That system promised to link databases across city government and make it easier for residents and builders to access basic information about property records. It was supposed to go live last September.

But almost one year later, the system still is not operational. City employees have poured countless hours into the project, causing additional expense and frustration. Monthly status reports, meanwhile, reveal that the project was more complicated than anyone realized, and they show that progress has been hampered by friction between the city and Tyler Technologies, the company that acquired the contract as the software vendor. Other communities have had similar problems.

Bad timing played a part: The original software developer, EnerGov Solutions, was bought by Tyler Technologies several months after the Sioux Falls project got underway.

Still, despite the problems, the project manager for Sioux Falls is pressing forward and aiming for a completion date of Sept. 22. Tyler Technologies last week was conducting training classes for city employees.

“I feel very confident that it will happen,” said Debra Gaikowski, the city manager overseeing the project. “Our team has been working like gangbusters to really get this out the door.”

When it was pitched to the City Council in April 2012, the EnerGov software system was billed as a top-of-the-line, next generation advancement. The EnerGov system promised to link information from different departments and allow that information to be displayed on GIS maps.

For the average Sioux Falls resident, it would have practical applications. Information stored by the city — such as code violations at a property, the zoning of a property, whether it’s registered as a rental — is kept in various locations among different departments. EnerGov would combine all of it and allow residents to find basic information about properties from the city’s Web site, using mapping software.

The software would allow residents to apply for building permits electronically. Developers could submit building plans electronically and receive feedback in real time.

“This is an investment in doing our job better,” Kevin Smith, the assistant planning director, said at the time.

Not so easy

In April 2012, Smith laid out a schedule with a tentative completion date of September 2013. He acknowledged then that it was a long process.

“If I had not lived through this once, I would say, ‘Wow, shouldn’t you be done earlier than that?’ To do it wrong and to have to fix it later, you can’t put a price on that, whether in time or anything else,” he told the council.

Smith ended his presentation with an assurance that the administration would brief the council again once certain milestones had been met.

It was the last time the council received an in-depth briefing on EnerGov.

Indeed, the original schedule, the one that was thought to contain enough padding to get the software operational by the end of September 2013, became obsolete as soon as the city started to identify and assess its business practices. The project, Gaikowski said, was more complex than city officials originally thought.

Conflicts with Tyler

But the city’s status reports on the project convey behind-the-scenes conflict with Tyler Technologies. Tyler creates, sells and services a host of different software programs for the public sector. Tyler acquired EnerGov in November 2012.

Tyler boasts a number of achievements. But, not surprisingly for a company of its size and one that deals in the complex world of software, it also has been accused of failing to deliver on promises.

Problems elsewhere

Jefferson County, Mo., sued the company in 2009 for breach of contract, alleging Tyler failed to deliver an adequate, operational computer system. Ventura, Calif., sued Tyler in 2006, alleging the company misrepresented its products. The lawsuit eventually was settled.

This month, the Fort Worth, Texas, School District reported receiving $40 million more in state aid than it should have during the 2010-2011 school year. The district blamed the overpayment on a mistake in software developed by Tyler. The school board president called it “completely unacceptable.”

Terry McAlister, the mayor of Fort Morgan, Colo., said his city got rid of Tyler after the company botched a project to create a software billing system for city-owned utilities in 2012.

“We don’t have anything to do with them since then,” McAlister said. “We dropped them. Their program didn’t work.”

Good results, too

But others report positive experiences.

Hal Eidal, an administrative analyst for the city of Clovis, Calif., said his city started using EnerGov more than three years ago.

“I tell everybody that 97 percent of EnerGov is really good,” he said.

“It’s tough to build a product that covers Canada, Dubai, Sioux Falls and Clovis all at the same time,” Eidal added.

Unlike Sioux Falls, Clovis took a bite-by-bite approach to rolling out EnerGov. While Sioux Falls is using EnerGov for multiple tasks, Clovis started first with building permits. Next, it plans to add code enforcement, and then move on to another task in a step-by-step process that is less complex than in Sioux Falls.

The complexity, according to project status reports, was only part of the problem.

Tyler’s acquisition of EnerGov led to “high staff turnover on the EnerGov side since they were bought out by Tyler,” according to a status report prepared in January.

Sioux Falls concerns

A report prepared in February by Gaikowski noted that “EnerGov does not have adequate resources to complete work items in a timely manner which affects the project schedule. Getting them on-site for training when necessary could prove to be challenging as well.”

The reports also note that Tyler was demanding change orders — and extra money — for tasks that city officials felt were covered under the original contract. Ultimately, Tyler agreed to abide by the original contract, Gaikowski said.

Concerned by the company’s performance, the city earlier this year hired another consultant to manage Tyler. That, so far, has cost an additional $36,720. The city also hired a temporary employee to complete reports for the system after the company underestimated the number of hours it would take to complete the reports, Gaikowski said.

In March, Tyler agreed to replace its project manager with someone new. The city’s April status report noted that grievances against Tyler’s project manager included “issues with communication, poor follow-thru (sic) on several items, and a general lack of knowledge of the system.”

Tyler’s response

Tyler released a statement saying the project remains on budget.

“Project timelines are responsive to the needs of the project and sometimes mutually revised in agreement with the client,” the statement said. “EnerGov is an integral part of Tyler’s portfolio of public-sector software solutions — it has grown significantly since being acquired by Tyler, including nearly doubling the size of the EnerGov team. As a standard practice, Tyler Technologies is fully supportive of our clients and we resolve issues directly with them.”

The company declined to address personnel issues.

Preparing for rollout

Today, more than two years after it started, the light is at the end of the tunnel. Earlier this summer, the city was feeling confident enough about EnerGov to begin explaining it to the city’s builders and developers. For Todd Anawski, the government affairs and education director for the Home Builders Association of the Sioux Empire, it was the first he had heard about it.

EnerGov, Anawski said, sounds promising if it enables builders to submit plans electronically. That would save them a trip to City Hall and let them submit paperwork after regular business hours. That promotes more flexibility.

But Anawski worries about whether the word will get out about the new system and whether there will be adequate training. He hopes that the Home Builders Association will be able to host a training session so that his organization’s members know how it works.

“The whole question is, getting people to understand it and having those training sessions.”